Santa Rosa

Nationwide, hundreds of marches are set to take place, as part of a movement to harness the political power of women.

The joint program  between SRJC and SSU will provide a four-year degree transition pathway for SRJC viticulture and oenology students and expand SSU's wine business program in SSU's School of Business and Economics by adding a wine production track.

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday morning unanimously approved buying two multi-unit residences that will provide temporary, shared rental housing for some of the 220 homeless people currently camping on the paved Joe Rodota Trail between Santa Rosa and Sebastopol.

Firefighters were called shortly before 3 a.m. after a smoke smell was reported in the area of Dixie Place and Lombardi Lane, but due to fog and light rain they weren't initially able to find the source, according to the Santa Rosa Fire Department.

"You guys have dropped the ball and you haven't done your job and I'm tired of paying my taxes when you don't do your job," shouted one man, as a microphone was passed among participants at the Roseland Library.

The board in December approved spending nearly $12 million to buy or lease housing for the homeless, including dozens of the campers.

The break-ins have neighboring merchants concerned about safety and what can be done. 

The two-alarm blaze was first reported at 8:34 p.m. Saturday in a two-story building within the Walnut Creek Apartments complex at 2120 Jennings Ave. Firefighters said the fire started in a first-floor unit, which was fully involved. A second ground-floor apartment sustained fire damage, and the two upstairs units sustained smoke damage.

On Friday at 10:17 p.m., officers responded to a report of a robbery at Lola's Market at 1680 Petaluma Hill Road.

Sonoma County officials are working on ideas for an already-approved indoor-outdoor shelter that they hope will address some of their safety concerns about a growing homeless encampment along a Santa Rosa trail.

On Santa Rosa's Joe Rodota Trail, a mile-long homeless encampment has swelled to an estimated 200 people. Now the encampment is dealing with a series of fires that have broken out, according to the fire department and neighbors.

The two men, who are now 56 and 49 years old, allege they were abused beginning at age 10 or 11 by Gary Timmons, a now-defrocked priest who served four years in prison for child molestation and who has been named in several previous lawsuits. 

A North Bay man has written a song he hopes fire departments will adopt as an anthem.

A Sonoma County sheriff's K-9 helped arrest a Santa Rosa man Saturday evening on suspicion of stealing a vehicle and possession of narcotics and burglary tools, sheriff's officials said.

An alarm at the business in the 900 block of Piner Place notified police at 3:36 a.m. and officers found six men in their 20s loading cars with stolen marijuana, police said in a notice.

Police said there have been numerous complaints about bicycle thefts especially in the downtown area. Police used a bait-bicycle from a local bicycle store and arrested four people for grand theft, a felony if the bike's value is more than $950. 

Investigators said the man and his girlfriend woke up after hearing noise coming from the balcony of their second-floor apartment unit.